


Two Plus One Makes...

by DynamicKea



Series: Alternative Mentor AU [3]
Category: The Yogscast
Genre: Explosions for Fun and Life Lessons, Gen, Implied Kidnapping, Nanosounds - Alternative Mentor AU, Other Yogs mentioned, Sudden Onsets of Seriousness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-17
Updated: 2015-02-28
Packaged: 2018-03-13 09:58:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3377324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DynamicKea/pseuds/DynamicKea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Sjin blew Nano up, she landed near the Jaffa factory. Now she has two mentors - A dwarf and a spaceman.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. ...A Huge Explosion

Out of all the places she could have landed (including the middle of the ocean, a volcano or even back at Mahogany Meadows), Nano had not expected to land in another explosion.

It was a very good explosion, although she only learned this later. It had a great punch to it and the ripple fallout was flawless. Little fire came of the explosion but that was good for a mining bomb. Nano didn't really understand half of what Honeydew had babbled when he dusted her off at ground zero. She did recall a whole lot of pain. Fire would do that to people, she figured. And she also remembered words like "gunpowder," and "nuclear," and "holy shit, how are you alive?"

At the time Nano would have been alarmed by these words, which was probably why she remembered them. Right then and there, she was too busy going _arrrgh_ to make any real remarks.

According to Xephos, the first words she had said to them were: 'You're shorter than me.'

 _BANG_.

Nano yelped, almost dropping the gunpower.

'Why did you do that!?' she said.

Across the tunnel, Honeydew was still holding the plank of wood he had walloped beside her ear. 'You were zoned out for... twenty minutes? Probably less.'

'Sorry,' Nano grunted, stripping off her gloves to scrub at her sleep-filled eyes. 'Didn't get much sleep last night.'

'If your leg's still playing up, you should talk to Xephos again,' Honeydew said. 'Those burns didn't get worse, did they?'

Nano didn't need to look over to the dwarf to know that he was looking at her leg. Sometimes it was "the leg." _The leg_ with bandages all over it in her first few months, then _the leg_ with copious amounts of cream and care being applied to it. Then it became _the leg_ that was still being bloody annoying and Nano was _fine_ , thank you Honeydew.

'Nah, _the leg's_ fine,' Nano lied. 'Sorry, what were we doing?'

Honeydew gave her a grin. 'Blowing shit up?'

'Oh yeah.' Nano's tone grew sarcastic as she replaced her gloves. 'How could I forget?'

There came laughter from the tunnel's side. 'We were up to the gunpowder trailing,' Honeydew said. 'Now, what do we do?'

'Uh, well....' Nano scoured her memory. 'We drop the gunpowder in a line about three fingers wide. The line keeps going until you judge it's a safe distance away, and you set off the gunpowder. The gunpowder catches fire, goes down the line and sets off the bomb!'

Honeydew nodded. 'And we use gunpowder because...?'

'You got blown up by a ton of creepers yesterday,' Nano said promptly.

'Ye-what? What had Xephos been telling you!?'

Nano smiled as sweetly and innocently as she could. 'All sorts of things,' she said.

A sigh replied to her. 'We're using gunpowder...?' Honeydew repeated.

'It's slower than redstone, so if anyone is in the tunnel and hears the gunpowder burning they can run away. Or, if you realise something has gone wrong, we have a longer amount of time to get away.' Nano rattled off the list at a quick pace. She then grinned. 'Plus, it builds suspense.'

'Good job,' Honeydew said, clapping Nano over the shoulder. 'Come on then, you've got the bag.'

'Yeah, it's real heavy,' Nano grunted. Sure fingers went to the strings along the sack, adjusting and re-tying knots until one corner of the bag could be pried open.

Nano hefted the sack. Next was what she figured was a decently hard part. It wasn't the hardest part of blowing things up. The hardest part was when they waited down the tunnel, watching the little gleam of light trail around the corner and the only sounds were their breathing and the occasional rustling of Honeydew's beard.

Laying the gunpowder trail was difficult. If the trail was too thick, the flames would take longer to progress along that section, increasing the likelihood of a flame catching against barren stalks of grass and wandering off down some tunnel into who knew what. If the trail was too thin, the flame would burn out and they'd be stuck wondering if the flame had blown out or if they had a dud _or_ if the explosives were still about to explode but not just then.

Alright, Nano was sure that the margin of error was a lot bigger than Honeydew said, but she didn't want to take any chances. You know, fire 'n all.

Nano slowly stepped backwards along the tunnel. The dim light from Honeydew's torch bled from behind her. A thick stream of gunpowder spilled between the fabric that was held between Nano's fingers.

At times the powder was falling too quick, and she'd have to choke the sack and cut off the spill. At other times, the sack would choke all on its own and she'd have to shake and jiggle the bag until the flow continued.

Little puffs of vapour rolled in front of Nano. They caught the light, refracting and distracting Nano before she dragged her attention back down. Three fingers thick, she reminded herself. The sack's opening swayed slightly, leaving a mostly even trail of gunpowder stretching out before her.

Honeydew coughed. The sound echoed up and down the empty tunnel even as the pair ascended.

It won't be empty for much longer, Nano thought. Soon there'll be fire, and then who knows? Maybe there'll be diamond. Or uranium.

'Right. That should do it,' Honeydew said.

Nano choked the sack and rolled it upright. Half a minute later the string secured the gunpowder and she hefted it onto her back.

'You sure it's far enough?' Nano said as she did so.

Honeydew was peering down the black tunnel. 'Non concussive,' he said absently. 'Should only destroy minerals in a ten metre radius if I've cooked it right. Maybe fifteen.'

Nano focused on the weight of the sack. 'We only went... uh, fourteen metres?'

'Fourteen and a half,' Honeydew said. 'Looks alright from my end. You?'

'I think so?'

Honeydew crouched down beside the trail. Nano could see the glint of flint in his hand as he passed her the torch. 'Eh, good enough.'

There was a sharp _zing_. Then a _whoosh_.

A little flame burst into life. It hungrily roared down the trail, guzzling any and all things in its path. These flames were racers, leaving only ashes in their wake as they laughed and danced down the tunnel.

The tunnel darkened as they dived downwards.

Nano slid and sat down on the ground, Honeydew choosing instead to lean against the wall.

'You were limping.'

'Not this again...' Nano muttered. 'I told you, I'm fine!'

'You know, that's usually what Xephos or Lalna say before they fall over from working all night.'

Nano huffed. 'Well, I _am_ fine. You don't need to worry about _the leg_ , no harm done.'

A sound of shifting against the wall. A disbelieving snort.

'What! It's just a little stiff, alright? I'm fine.'

Honeydew was smiling lightly. 'You sure?'

'Ye-'

 _BOOM_.

Nano yelped as the ground bled away under her. She hung for a second, as if gravity didn't realise that it had a job to do. Then the world reached up and _grabbed_ Nano, _pulling_ her downwards.

'Honeydew-!'

The ground was gone. All that remained was an empty black silence. Wind. Wind was there, pulling her hair into patterns that she couldn't see because it was _dark_ and _cold_ and she was _burning_ and _falling_.

...She was standing on the ground.

'You alright down there?' Honeydew said from a metre above her head. Nano stared up into his grin. 'Hey, I'm taller than you now!'

'...That was mean!'

Honeydew hopped down into the flattish, twenty or so metre long hole. 'See? Doesn't hurt living things. Although, the plants are probably a bit screwed right now.' He leaned down, scooping up a chunk of loose iron. When he looked up, he saw Nano's flat look. 'Well? What did we learn?'

'That you're a scrub?' Nano muttered darkly.

'Uh. No?'

'Never to trust you about how far away safe is?'

Honeydew scratched his beard. 'Never blow things up unless you are in top condition, and don't lie to me about that otherwise you might get a nasty surprise. But not trusting other people's judgement is good too.'

Nano shifted the weight off _the leg_. 'I want to go home now. Can we just blow things up without turning it into a life lesson?'

'I've got some TNT, figured you'd like some normal explosions afterwards.'

'Above ground?'

'Sure. Now which way is outside....'

 


	2. ...A Learning Experiance

Two figures stood in the fields of Honeydew Inc.

One was shorter than the other by a decent amount. She wore a red kimono, or at least what remained of one. At one point the fabric had been torn or burnt to shreds, leaving behind only a semblance of wearable cloth. But she had done well with the leftovers and had fashioned them into her small dress. The addition of cloth pants and a woollen top kept the red outfit together.

The girl raised her ruby sword. She favoured her right leg, her figure turning contrapposto from her efforts to remove the weight from it. Her eyes narrowed at her opponent.

The one opposite mirrored her. His sapphire sword was lifted in tandem, his gloved hands tightening on the hilt.

'Three opponents. One has dual wielding daggers, along with a broadsword strapped to his back.'

There was a blur of movement, the spin of red and blue locking together. Nano grinned at the parried blow, before wiping it away. After standing together, battling the force of their respective wrists, they slid apart.

'The second is hiding in the tree before you. He has a crossbow pointed at you.'

Nano was the one to lunge this time. Xephos only had to twitch his sword to send her to a halt. The momentum rolled up Nano's arms and juddered her teeth.

'The third has an axe. He is right behind you.'

Nano swore.

'What are you going to do?' Xephos finished.

The two blades spun and slammed together again as Nano thought. 'The most dangerous one is the knife man right now.'

Xephos frowned. 'Why's that?'

'Well.' Nano's blade whirred towards Xephos's neck, only for him to duck and kick towards her ankles. When she regained her balance, she spoke again. 'The axe man will be off balance after his first strike, since I know he's coming and I can dodge him. The one with a crossbow only has one shot, and his friends are too close for him to get a good shot without wasting it.'

The swords clashed again.

'So why focus on the knifeman?'

'Several reasons.'

Xephos leaned away from Nano's stab, sliding his sword along the length of hers and rotating. Nano wrenched the blade away before Xephos could send it flying.

'Firstly, I don't want him to get out that broadsword.'

'What's wrong with that? It's a sword.'

Nano shook her head. 'Yeah, but you fought me with broadswords. Those things are hard. They've got a longer reach-'

There was a _clang_ as Nano parried Xephos.

'-and are a lot heavier than my sword. If he gets it out, I'm dead. Second reason.'

Nano's sword brushed against the dirt as she crouched. She launched herself up again as the sapphire sword swept under her.

'Since he's using knifes right now, he's going to be able to attack me from two different directions at once. He could throw it at my back, stab me, and that would hurt a lot.'

'Good reasons.'

'I've got one more,' Nano said.

The two fighters backed up, both lowering their swords to appraise each other. Xephos nodded.

'Well, what's that one?' he said.

Nano beamed. 'He has _two_ knives and a _broadsword_. He's gonna be _good_.'

The spaceman nodded, spinning his sword absently. 'So what's your plan?'

'Easy.' Nano took a deep breath. 'Dodge the axe man, get between the crossbowman and the knifeman, spook the crossbowman into shooting at me. That gets rid of the crossbow for a few minutes and possibly hurts the knifeman.'

'Mm. Good strategy. The thing is, wouldn't the axe man still be behind you when this happens? He probably wouldn't stay off balance for long.'

'Well, I guess I'd just have to stab him in the gut to get him off my back.'

'While tricking the knifeman into being shot by his friend? That would be hard to pull off. Any other ideas?'

Nano opened her mouth, and then shut it deliberately. She hummed in thought.

Xephos grinned.

That was all the warning Nano had before he _moved_ , sapphire sword deliberately catching the light before smashing her sword from her grip. He tapped her shoulder with the sword.

'Oh, come on!' Nano said. ‘Really? Did you really just attack me while I answered?’

The now-sheepish grin on Xephos's face gave her the answer. He sheathed his sword. 'Sorry about that one,' he said.

'Sorry? That was such a cheat!'

Xephos rolled his shoulders. 'Well, you _are_ just meant to be practicing thinking while doing other crap at the same time. I'm surprised you thought of that plan in only five minutes. Plus, it was a good strategy, good reasoning as well, you just need to work on explaining it without getting attacked.'

Nano sheathed her ruby sword as well. 'Can we take a break now? My arms are exhausted.'

'Aw, Nano! Don't you want to test the new myst book with me and Honeydew?'

Nano faked a yawn, which soon shifted into a full one. 'Nah, I've been up for _ages_ , I'm gonna get some sleep.'

Spaceman and apprentice nodded to each other. They then returned to the factory.

 


	3. ...A Thirst For Revenge

The factory was as silent as a tomb.

Like a tomb, ambient echoes moaned through each floor. There was the low hum of refrigerators. There were the soft clucks from the chicken coop. Distant wires sparked irregularly in the darkness above, letting off sudden flashes of lancing light.

Gears in Xephos and Lalna's old machines shifted and settled, continuing the long process of shutting down from lack of use. Motes of dust swirled and caught in the stream of moonlight. This moonlight came from a large hole in the side of the factory, and the dust escaped through the great gap.

This gap was where Nano sat. In the cold blue shades of night, she balanced precariously there on the factory's edge. Her legs hung suspended in the dark of the night, her feet swinging against the moonlight.

In her lap Nano gripped her ruby sword. No longer was it a pristine and shining thing. Little scratches were strewn across the surface of the blade. There was a nick on its side. Stains of blood rolled along the edge to the tip of the blade, balling up into a red blot that slowly grew and grew as gravity pulled at the blood. Finally nature’s laws overtook surface tension and the blood detached from the sword and _fell_.

Nano could almost imagine the _plop_ as it struck the earth four floors below.

The breeze whispered past her again, murmuring and pulling painfully at Nano's hair. She didn't move even as her clothes whipped around her. Slowly the wind died, leaving the girl silent and still once more.

Another drop of blood fell away from the blade. Without any real cue or seemingly any moment of decision, Nano began to move. Bit by bit with numb determination, Nano slipped out a piece of cloth and began to polish the ruby surface. It wouldn't do much, not until she had a chance to fix the sword, but it was something.

'Might need to replace the blade,' she said regretfully. Her voice echoed long and loud through the empty floors. It rolled along wires and swept past the corpses that lined the room behind her. Finally the sound hit the walls, falling silent.

Soon she managed to sweep the blood from the blade. Nano glanced at the cloth, grimaced at the drying stains, and dropped it over the side of the building. As it fell, a stray wind caught the cloth and sent it billowing through the sky. Nano watched it vanish around the side of the building.

Nano stood. The sword she kept raised, swaying lightly.

Her footsteps were shockingly loud in the factory. The rolling echoes were not noticeable during the day, with the shouts of her, Xephos and Honeydew and the roar of machines swamping the sound. But in the darkness and the quiet, the footsteps were the ones to drown the rest of the noise.

There was a pause in the steps.

The ruby sword _moved_ in a short stab, straight through the skull of a zombie. It was probably already dead. Well, deader than dead, she had made sure of that. Overall it was better safe than sorry. And dead. Nano wiped the dry, clotted blood from the sword on the remnants of the zombie's clothes. Her sword then sliced, shredding away a hunk of the fabric.

This fabric she slowly tucked under her sword sheath. She was going to need that. Nano slipped further into the darkness of the factory, soon returning to the hole in the wall. There was a clatter of metal as she dropped her supplies on the floor.

It was an odd pile of gear. Nano’s eyes flicked across each item, nodding to herself. Tension still crept inside Nano’s every movement as she began to get ready.

First were the two boots, long and white, that Nano strapped over her feet. Hopefully her shoes would help keep the large Long Fall Boots in place and not falling off.

Next was an alchemical bag Nano tied under her sword with the zombie fabric. Into this she scooped a charging array and a number of dried food.

Nano grunted and pulled herself into the strap of the mining laser, checking twice that the handbuilt solar panel was pointed up. The laser looked fully charged. Hopefully it would last. The klein star ein she eyed warily, then slung around her neck.

Finally, the flying ring slid onto Nano's finger. She wriggled her fingers, feeling the rush of lightness roll through her. She reached out and held the side of the hole, the thick tears of metal rubbing against her bare hands.

Nano shifted her weight off her right leg. Her eyes tracked something in the distance, and she breathed in deeply.

 

Memories bubbled in her. The day plunging into night, the sudden scream from far above her as she abandoned her pumpkin farm. The _waves_ of creepers and zombies and notch knew what else _swarming_ all around her. The glimpse of clarity in the chaos of panic and pain and fear, looking up as the whole world _shook_. Light and sound spilling from above as the wall had ripped apart and then the light vanishing...

...Running upwards through the packs of mobs, cutting and killing until she reached the hole...

And then the _man_. The pale faced man with the reptilian face of a creeper _leering_ at Nano, him silhouetted in the flickering lights of the factory.

The lights had flashed again and he was gone.

Nano touched the second sword. The sapphire blade was badly cracked, barely held together by tape and the spare sheath she had found. Tucked deep in Nano's pocket was a small piece of flint.

Nano shut her eyes, focusing hard on the ring. She let go of the wall and jumped up, soaring into the air with her eyes open and fixed on the horizon.

She had no idea where she was going.

She had no idea what she was going to do.

She had no plan.

She had no information.

And she had no backup.

But she had friends - _mentors_ \- to find. And that scrub that _stole_ them was going to _pay_ .


End file.
